Affordable incubator reviews?

The lid fits perfectly with or with out the egg Turner. I have the Turner and it is made for this incubator and fits in it perfectly. The whole set up with shipping is less than the one you posted above and the GQF company is well known and their hovabator are very popular because they are so reliable.

It was only $100.99 with free shipping Plus I needed something large and it holds 56 eggs with the autoturner. Eventually (over this winter or next, maybe) I will build a cabinet incubator.

I finally got the incubator today and I have to say so far I am pleased. I've only had it set up for 45 minutes and it came up to temp very quick, unlike my LG. I was going to keep it in the Styrofoam bottom packing but there isn't a cutout for the plug so I will hold off and see how it holds temp and if its not good I will cut it out and try that. The instructions that came with it are very good and obviously written by an English speaker, not just a poor translation from Chinese. It fired right up as soon as I plugged it in. I had to adjust the humidity alarm because I dry hatch and I turned down the temp setting to 37.9C (it is set to 38 and that was looking nearly perfect according to 3 aquarium thermometers that I put in there, but I want to see where 37.9 gets me. Other than that I haven't had to mess with any controls.

The top cover reminds me of the cheap plastic drawers you can get at Walmart, which is what I expected. I would rather have it be hard and very clear, like Brinsea or Incuview, but it isn't terrible. It snaps on so you don't have to worry about gaps or an improper fit as long as you take a second to run your hand around the rim and make sure it is all lined up. I can see it easily getting scratched, broken, or warped though so I plan to handle it with care. I suppose that is no different than the Styrofoam ones that can be easily damaged.

One thing I don't like is that the plastic grate on the bottom is screwed on, and there is an ~ one inch gap between the grate and the side of the incubator on all sides. I'm not planning to use this for a hatcher, but if I did it seems it would make it a real pain to clean and potentially dangerous to the chicks, though covering it with the rubber drawer liner material should prevent and chicks (especially quail) from getting wedged in the gap. The temp sensor should perhaps be situated a little lower and it is glued to one side of the incubator so I might take it off and set it toward the center. I'll make that decision once I see how the temps behave. The candler feature I expect is not very useful, but the lights are super bright. I was surprised. It may let you pick out the clears easily, if nothing else.

The other thing I don't like is that the cord is very short and I could only find a short power strip but I need to plug it into a longer surge protector anyway.

I didn't do an unboxing video because I was in too much of a rush to get it set up. I was expecting it Saturday and really need to move my eggs asap. I have a few staggered batches that I will be moving in there, but some of them are from an old guinea nest and I wouldn't want to judge the incubator on them, so my first "good" batch that will go in there is due July 3. I'll post an update in 24 hours or so and again around hatch, and sooner as well if there are any issues.

I'll post pics here in a bit.

@SunHwaKwon Any update on this? How did your hatch go?

I have been looking over reviews and shopping for my first ever incubator. There is no way I can justify buying a Brisnea, and have been looking more and more at the Hova-Bator Genesis 1588. This model seems to be more affordable, and if it does it's job well, I am inclined to give it a shot.

MistyMountain said:

@SunHwaKwon Any update on this? How did your hatch go?

I have been looking over reviews and shopping for my first ever incubator. There is no way I can justify buying a Brisnea, and have been looking more and more at the Hova-Bator Genesis 1588. This model seems to be more affordable, and if it does it's job well, I am inclined to give it a shot.

Click to expand...

Sorry I haven't updated! So, I've had two hatches so far using the incubator from start to lockdown (I use a separate hatcher) and all has gone well.

I drilled some holes in the cover to match the amount of ventilation that my Farm Innovators one has. It only comes with one hole about the size of a nickel drilled near the bottom back. I cut holes in the styrofoam packaging to match the holes I'd drilled plus the original hole, and also cut around the control panel so that I could keep the styrofoam on it. It holds temps very well that way.

One thing I like is that the temperature sensor is able to be calibrated. I checked my aquarium thermometers with ice and found they were all off by two degrees F. I placed them in the incubator and checked back maybe 8 hours later and if I recall the incubator was off by .8C from what I wanted it to be so I adjusted it. There is a temperature gradient from the front to the back of the incubator. Perhaps the control panel gives off heat, plus the turner motor is up in the front. My solution has been to shift the position of the eggs every few days. Since I run several batches simultaneously I am usually candeling every few days, so I move the front row to the back and shift everyone forward. That way everyone spends time in each temperature zone to even things out. Now that I think about it, I am going to cut more styrofoam from the front of the packaging so it only covers the plastic cover and perhaps that will let it even out.

I've really only had two issues with it. Since it has a digital power button, if the power goes out even for a second the incubator turns off. This has happened twice in one day during some storms we had. The first time I was awake and turned it back on immediately. The second time I don't remember what happened but I didn't check it for a few hours and turned it back on. No harm to the eggs, though. I'd say its similar to my stupid broody coming back to the nest and sitting on the wrong clutch of eggs and me not checking her and moving her back for a few hours. Grrr.

The other thing is that the turner "broke" and I didn't realize it for a couple weeks! When I set my barred rock eggs in there they fit fine but then a week later I remember thinking "what the heck, they won't fit anywhere except the outside rows!" I thought it was a faulty design and the turner rocked at too steep of an angle for me to fit anything but bantam and guinea eggs in there. Then last week I was candling some eggs and happened to be doing it right when the turner countdown occurred. I heard the motor but the turner baskets never moved. I thought hmmm so I looked at my watch and 2 hours later came back...same thing. It was full so I had to get a bunch of egg cartons and pull all 56 eggs (nerve wracking) and unscrew the bottom grate. The arm that goes from the turner to the motor had fallen off somehow at some point. Once I fixed it and put it all back together (I omitted the screws on the grate and if I ever use it for hatching I will cut a new grate that actually goes all the way to the sides) I saw that the turner angle is just right and big eggs do in fact fit nicely. That made a light bulb go off in my head that the turner had been messed up for several weeks! Amazingly perhaps, my chicks and keets suffered no ill effects.

All in all, I would say that this incubator is a great value, especially given its large capacity. The true test will be how it holds up over time, especially since I am running it nonstop and will continue to do so for about another month. At the price I paid, I would recommend it. I definitely consider it a low maintenance incubator and I spend less time checking it than I did with the Little Giant Still Air I had.